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2015 Citizen Survey of Unincorporated Jefferson County

Residents of unincorporated Jefferson County continue to enjoy a high quality of life. According to the result of the county’s 2015 citizen survey, more than nine in 10 residents report that they have a good or excellent quality of life. Residents like living in Jeffco, feel safe in their neighborhoods and the commercial areas, believe it is a great place to live and plan to remain here.

Every five years or so, Jefferson County Board of Commissioners contract with the National Research Center (NRC) to conduct a statistically valid, random sample survey or residents of Jefferson County.

The Boulder-based NRC works with the International City and County Managers Association (ICMA) to conduct surveys of counties and cities across the country. NRC previously conducted surveys of Jefferson County in 2004 and 2010, giving the county the ability to compare results over time in many areas, as well as comparing them with counties and cities of similar size.

The five-page survey questionnaires were mailed to 3,000 households in Jeffco in July. The households were chosen at random to reflect the estimated 193,000 residents of unincorporated Jeffco.

A total of 892 residents of unincorporated Jefferson County returned the completed questionnaires, giving a confidence level of plus or minus 3 percent.

Some notable results

Quality of life

92 percent of respondents rated the overall quality of life in Jefferson County as excellent or good

94 percent would recommend Jefferson County as a great place to live although only 58 percent gave high ratings to Jeffco as a place to retire

Safe place to live

96 percent feel safe in their neighborhoods

83 percent rated the sheriff’s services as good or excellent

County services

77 percent rated county services overall as good or excellent

77 percent rated the county’s customer service as a whole as good or excellent

51 percent rated the value of services for taxes paid as good or excellent

Transportation

50 percent said they had used bus, light rail or other public transportation instead of driving, which was much higher than the national benchmark

77 percent gave “overall ease of travel” an excellent or good rating

There is much more to the report, including five questions specific to current issues in Jefferson County related to revenues, taxes and contacting the county. The complete survey reports and breakdowns of the information by commissioner district, mountains and plains, age and sex of respondents and past survey results are contained in the report documents below.

2010 Citizen Survey Results

While the Board of County Commissioners use many tools to learn what is on the minds of residents and businesses, such as informal surveys and public meetings, formal surveys like the one conducted in 2010 are only sent every four or five years.

The county-conducted 2010 citizen survey revealed that 95 percent of the 1,319 unincorporated Jefferson County residents who responded rated Jeffco as an "excellent" or "good" place to live. This was up five percent from the 2004 survey, according to the final results report from the National Research Center (NRC) of Boulder.

About 45 percent of the 3,000 households in unincorporated Jefferson County that received the survey responded. The National Research Center, which conducted the survey for $24,700 for the county, usually sees a 25 to 40 percent response rate. The margin of error is plus or minus three percent. The survey questionnaire was limited to five pages and asked a variety of standardized, open-ended and close-ended questions. Questions measured perceptions of the quality of life, county services and customer service in Jefferson County. The county plans to use the report for short-term and long-term strategic planning and communications.

See the documents below for the full details of the 2010 citizen survey.